Alleged illegal detention: Court fixes Dec 8 for Ijaw activist’s suit against Agip, DSS

A Bayelsa State High Court sitting in Yenagoa has fixed December 8 for further hearing and appearance of witnesses in the suit filed by an Ijaw youth activist, Comrade Collins Trueman Opumie, over his alleged arrest and detention in an underground detention facility in Abuja for 730 days by the Department of State Services, DSS.

The presiding judge, Justice Ebiyon Duke Charlie, at the resumed hearing on Friday in the suit numbered YHC/324/2022 adjourned till December 8, 2023, to allow for motions and hearing.

Justice Charlie also rejected the attempts by counsel to the DSS, George Obiora, to move for adjournment through a letter submitted to the court concerning the demise of his mother.

Both the counsel to the claimant, Ebipreye Sese, and counsel to the Police, Silas Ebete, objected to the request for adjournment through the letter, arguing that it has not been filed before the court and served on all parties to the suit.

The Bayelsa youth activist, Opumie, had filed a suit against his illegal arrest and detention, demanding the sum of N9 billion in damages.

He is also praying the court to declare that his arrest, torture and subsequent detention without proper food, medical attention and access to family members for two years was false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

In his eight prayers before the court, Opumie sought the order of the court against the defendants jointly and severally “for damages suffered as a result of the false imprisonment for two (2) years under the custody of the DSS (2nd set of defendants) in their prison facilities without bail or arraignment in a court of law at the instance of the Agip (1st set of defendants) false and malicious complaints/reports against him”.

He is also seeking “an injunction restraining the 2nd and 3rd set of defendants from further harassing or attempts to arrest and detain the claimant at the instance of the 1st set of defendants”.

Opumie, who is an indigene of Opuama community in Southern Ijaw Local Government area of the state and among Niger Delta Youths that embraced the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), in his statement of claims, accused the DSS in Yenagoa of allegedly abducting him at the instance of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in a gestapo style operation.

He said was physically and mentally tortured, tied and thrown into the boot of a vehicle and taken to Abuja like a common criminal without the knowledge of his family.

Meanwhile, the traditional leaders of the Eniwari and Ogi-Ama communities of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have declared their support for the legal action against the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and the Department of State Services (DSS).

Chairman, Traditional Rulers Council of Southern Ijaw and the Amananawei of Enewari community, HRH Job David Dairus, expressed confidence in the ability of the judiciary to expedite action on the suit and ensure justice is served.